The Fascinating Art of Soil Building 61 



tainable from the vegetable garden. Or pos- 

 sibly in some pasture will be found a soil better 

 still. I hunted up a place where the wash from 

 the road had accumulated, making a deposit of 

 rich loam, with sand and manure. There was a 

 good thick sod on top of this, which I cut off 

 about three inches thick, and dug up the soil from 

 beneath. Then I dug over the manure pile to 

 find the oldest and most thoroughly rotted material 

 I could get there. Horse and cow manure mixed, 

 about half and half, is best. Horse manure 

 alone is light and likely to dry out, but will do 

 if you can't get the ideal mixture. The leaf 

 mould and the sand have already been talked 

 about. In case you can't get sand, finely sifted 

 coal ashes may be used as a substitute. 



You may receive the impression from some of 

 your garden reading that it is necessary to mix 

 a special soil for about every separate thing you 

 want to grow. Just add that to your list of 

 things to forget! 



One Soil for all General Purposes 



A prescription for a soil that will give satis- 

 factory results with most plants is as follows: 

 One third each of rotted sod, sifted leaf mould, 

 and thoroughly decomposed manure. This is the 

 ideal, but is subject to modification. For in- 



